It was "You Get What You Give" that filled Shine for the New
Radicals last Thursday. From MTV and Rolling Stone to alt radio and
Z-100, people notice this tuneful rant, which calls out the Dust
Brothers, Beck, Courtney Love, and Marilyn "Rhymes With Beck's Last
Name" Manson. All "fakes," Gregg Alexander charges. Live in
"mansions"--which, even if they don't, almost is Marilyn's last
name.

What imparts interest to this opinion is how different
Alexander seems from the above-named luminaries, especially Beck
and Love, both of whom were obliged by history or fashion to pursue
showbiz dreams from a bohemian base. Alexander is like it used to
be--a showbiz wannabe whose bohemianism is a side effect of his
stubbornly starry-eyed aspirations. A plumber's son from Grosse
Pointe, Michigan, he was a teenager when he first hit L.A., where
he soon cut a born-dead debut he compares to Phil Spector and
others recall as being more like Meat Loaf. At Shine, the material
was all from the new Maybe You've Been Brainwashed Too, said to
have garnered him a $600,000 advance from MCA. Clearest musical
referents: Todd Rundgren and Hall & Oates. How many boho bands have
the uncool to inspire such comparisons? How many have the
knowledge? How many have the chops?

Backed by a generically rockish-looking band distinguished by
a scrawny blonde in hooker mufti on tambourine, harmony vocals,
cheerleading, and navel, Alexander, a tall white nonteen with a
shaved head who sings and sings only, performed, projected,
stretched out his arms like the winner on election night and
crossed his heart when he said he loved you. Midrange pitch
problems often compel him to shout, not to say yell, but he lives
off the kind of emotive falsetto only showbiz kids dare. Together
with the funk-lite underpinnings, that's the Hall & Oates part. The
Rundgren runs deeper--falsetto and timbre and vocal affect, melodic
contour too, alternating keyb and guitar leads, complete pop
arsenal. Everything except lyrics, which are as verbose as early
Dylan, or Meat Loaf. "You Get What You Give" may only be "Sex and
Candy" '99. But Alexander wants the world. Why should Beck and
Courtney present at the MTV Awards when he and his hooker honey are
available?